Fight Club Rules
by sleepismylife
Summary: PostDesire. what happens when your best friend becomes mcsteamy? you need to set up rules.  That friendship becomes fight club. mcstizzie friendship and eventually mcstizzie as they were meant to be. i don't own greys or fight club.
1. Chapter 1

FIGHT CLUB RULES:

A/N: I don't own grey's anatomy, or their characters, or fight club. Rated for language and maybe some adult content later on. Post Desire story. McStizzie Friendship and eventually McStizzie as they were meant to be.

Chapter 1

The following morning after Addison had left and George told Izzie that he is transferring to Mercy West. The interns were in the locker room and had just finished changing when Bailey came in with the attendings.

"Okay, you're intern exam is coming up in a few weeks and along with you're intern responsibilities, you need to study for this exam as much as possible, which means attendings (now addressing Burke, Shephard, Sloan and Torres) that you will need to help out with the scut and no dumping extra work on your interns (looking pointedly at Sloan). Okay, O'Malley-Shepherd, Yang-Torres, Grey-Burke, Stevens-Sloan, and Karev you'll be covering Jane Doe along with helping me in the clinic. Now move it people."

They all followed their respective attendings out of the locker room, Sloan was walking quickly with Izzie trying to catch up, already in a pissed off mood, muttered to himself. "Great, I get stuck with the peppy Barbie cheerleader today. Can my day suck more?" Seeing that Izzie was still behind him, "Stevens, you think that you could stop your leisurely walk and try to hurry the hell up?"

Izzie stopped in front of him and put her hands on her hips. "First of all I'm not feeling so peppy lately. Secondly, I am neither a Barbie nor am I or have I ever been a cheerleader. Thirdly, if it makes you feel better, you're not really the sunshine in my day either; and don't even think about asking me to do your slave work today. So how about we get through this day with as little non-medical conversation as possible."

Sloan sidestepped her and started walking while he spoke. "Sounds freaking fantastic. And Stevens, I mean it, any sunshine and happiness from you today and you'll be doing so much scut you won't see the inside of the OR for a month."

Izzie finally catching up to his stride replied sarcastically, "Great, who's the first patient?"

They walked into the patient's room where Sloan started speaking.

"Dr. Stevens, this is Rosa Suarez age 31. She is in today for breast reconstruction following a double mastectomy. Ms. Suarez, this is Dr. Stevens she will be the intern on your surgery today. Do you have any questions about the surgery?"

"No, Dr. Sloan, you explained it all last night."

"Okay, if you have any questions, feel free to ask Dr. Stevens or have the nurses page me. (to Izzie) Stevens, go prep her for surgery."

"Yes, Dr. Sloan," Izzie replied to his retreating back as he had left the room already. Izzie proceeded to take her vitals.

"Oh, he's so cute, is he single?"

"If you use the term loosely."

"Oh, Dr. Sloan is one of those, the guys who sleep around. Like my husband Robert."

Sloan was coming back in to the room but stopped when he heard his name. He stopped outside the door but could only see Izzie but he could hear the entire conversation.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Izzie replied uncomfortably, trying not to get involved.

"We were married for 7 years and then he had lost his father and found out about my cancer in the same week. He became distant and wouldn't talk to me. Then one day, the last day, the last day of my chemo, he tells me that he has fallen in love with his ex-girlfriend, that they have been sleeping together and that they are expecting a child!" With that Rosa starts crying.

Izzie hands her a tissue and says, "I'm very sorry."

"What kind of person gets involved in adultery? How can someone ruin another person's marriage?"

Sloan saw Izzie's face change, only for a fraction of a second, but he saw it, it was a look that he knew well, a look of guilt.

"I don't know. Umm, I have to go check on something but I'll be right back to finish prepping you." With that Izzie hurried out of the room not even noticing Sloan and she went into the women's bathroom on the other side of the hall. Out of curiosity more than anything, Sloan followed her making sure that no on was looking, he sneaked inside the bathroom. He checked the stalls and all of them were empty but one so he locked the bathroom door and went back to the one stall that was occupied by Izzie.

He knocked on the stall door and said, " Stevens, suck it up and come out here."

"You realize that this is a woman's bathroom, right? And unless you've been doing sexual reassignment surgery on yourself, you don't have the women parts that qualify you to use this bathroom."

Sloan smiled to himself about the intern's ability to come back with retorts even when she was crying and responded to her, " Stevens, come out now before I take you off this case."

Izzie opened the stall's lock and Sloan thought "Interns, taking away their chance of surgery is like taking away life." Izzie emerged her eyes water and face blotchy and pink.

"So, Stevens, who'd you do the dirty deed with?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who did you have sex with? Which married man?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Don't even bother lying to me. I saw your face when she asked what kind of person could commit adultery and you looked guilty."

Izzie hardened her face and responded, "whatever I did or didn't do is none of your business."

"It becomes my business when your personal crap interferes with my surgeries."

Izzie with a very annoyed look on her face said, "Don't worry. My personal life won't ever affect you or your surgeries. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a patient to finish prepping, unless of course, you want another intern?"

Sloan looked at her intently and replied, "Fine, go but keep it professional Stevens."

"Believe me, when it comes to you Dr. Sloan, it will never be anything more."

She left the bathroom leaving Mark more curious about what the intern was hiding, anything to keep his mind off of Addison.


	2. Chapter 2

Fight Club Rules

Chapter 2

Izzie and Sloan finished their long surgery in silence speaking only when necessary. Afterwards they were both in the scrub room washing up when Izzie felt the need to break the silence.

"That was an excellent surgery, Dr. Sloan. Thank you for letting me scrub in and not just observe."

"You also did a good job Dr. Stevens," Sloan replied not looking at her.

There was another awkward moment of silence when Izzie suddenly felt the need to ask.

"Are you supposed to feel this guilty? This dirty?"

Sloan completely caught off guard looked at her and replied, "What?"

"Obviously there's no point of trying to hide it from you. You seem to have this weird sixth sense, so here it goes. So yes, I had one VERY drunk night of sex with a married man, which no one knows about, so you better not tell anyone," Izzie said trying to give him her best Bailey like stare.

Sloan bit back the impulse to laugh at her attempt at being intimidating and instead responded, "I won't and yes Stevens, you're supposed to feel guilty and dirty because you're a dirty mistress."

"Oh."

"It was O'Malley, wasn't it?"

"How the hell do you do that? Is it written across my forehead or something?"

"Please, you're an intern, the only people you know are in this hospital. And since the only people you seem to associate with are other interns, and since O'Malley's the only one who's married…its called logical deduction."

"No one can know, ever."

"Yeah I get it but you know that it'll come out eventually right? I mean it always does."

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to lose all my friends aren't I?"

Sloan shrugged and crossed his arms and looked at her, "Probably, I did."

Izzie looked incredulously at him, "You don't have any?"

"Nope."

"Maybe we could be friends?" Izzie offered quickly feeling a mixture of pity and sympathy for the surgeon.

"Easy there Stevens, just cause we shared a meeting of the dirty ex-mistresses doesn't mean that I'd want some intern as a friend. This was one meeting, as soon as I walk out, I go back to being your attending."

Izzie now slightly annoyed at Sloan and his complete rejection of her offer of friendship spat out, "I get it Dr. Sloan. Apparently surgical arrogance only grows with age." She continued quickly before he could respond, "Thanks for the surgery and I will see you in the morning." Izzie was at the door when she said, "And don't forget, this conversation never happened."

"Of course, and Dr. Stevens?"

Izzie turned around hopeful that maybe he changed his mind about the friend thing, "Yes?"

"I want you to check her post-op status every hour until you leave and then sign her out to whoever is on-call tonight."

Izzie let out an annoyed sigh and said, "Yes, Dr. Sloan."

A/N: Thank you Amnesie for the review. Not enough people appreciate McStizzie, at least in my opinion. Same disclaimers as in the first chapter. And sorry this is short but my boy's yelling at me cause we're supposed to be going to see Ocean's 13 and I'm writing this instead. Hopefully I'll update again tomorrow. I saw Ocean's 13 already, but I love George, Matt, Brad, and Mexico  Belle


	3. Chapter 3

Fight Club Rules:

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, they were so nice and encouraging that instead of studying for my final next week (by the way, don't ever take summer classes voluntarily), I'm typing up chapter 3. Oh and Amnesie Ocean's 13 is way better than 12, so it's worth seeing it twice. And Lilly, I totally get the whole mark and izzie as a reality thing, it so much better than the actual reality of george and izzie. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 3

Izzie was just finishing her last rounds on Suarez and was heading towards the exit when she realized that she left her studying material in her locker. She took the stairs in order to avoid possibly running into George or Sloan. She just came out of the locker room, notes in hand, when she bumped into Sloan.

"Watch it Stevens. Don't you interns have anything better to do than hangout in the hospital? Like, I don't know, maybe study for your interns exam?"

Izzie not in the mood for another confrontation with Sloan quickly responded, "I'm going, I just forgot my notes. Good night Dr. Sloan."

With that Izzie rushed to the stairs. Sloan was about to walk away when he noticed something on the floor. He picked up the deck of note cards that she left behind, rolled his eyes at her ditzyness and hurried after her to give them back. The last thing he needed was to feel guilty about causing someone's career to be over.

Izzie was about two flights down from the locker rooms when she ran into George.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Sloan was running down the stairs thinking to himself, _Damn, for a blond, she runs pretty fast._ He was finally within a flight of her when he heard her and O'Malley's voices. He stayed where he was curious to hear their conversation.

"So, I should go," George said as he turned to move but Izzie grabbed his arm.

"George, I don't want you to go to Mercy West. Please stay."

"I can't, its too complicated now."

"George, I can't survive if you're not here to be my friend."

"Izzie, I'm married and I love Callie. We had one drunken night of sex and I'm married. We can't be friends anymore." With that he took one sad look at her and left.

Izzie unable to control the tears anymore started running up the stairs. She saw Sloan at the top of the stairs.

"Stevens…" Sloan said unsure of where to go from there.

"Don't talk to me," Izzie said as she continued to climb the stairs until she reached the roof. She walked to the edge and sank down and stared balling tears. She didn't even hear as the door opened again. Then she felt someone sitting right next to her.

"So, how does this friend thing work?" Sloan asked.

Izzie finally stopped crying and looked up at him, "What?"

"Friends. Me and you as friends, how does it work?"

"Why now? What changed that the great Mark Sloan would think that I've become worthy enough to be your friend?" Izzie spat out.

"Forget it, I knew I shouldn't have bothered." He made a move to push himself up until Izzie put a hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry, that was really mean of me. I'm just not having the best of days."

"Okay, so this friend thing?" Mark asked as he sat back down.

"Yeah?"

"There has to be rules."

"Agreed," Izzie said as she took a pen out and wrote on the back of one of her study sheets.

"How very bookworm of you," Sloan said rolling his eyes at her and continuing before she could speak. "Okay, this friend thing, its Fight Club."

"Meaning?"

"Rule # 1 is that you don't talk about Fight Club. Meaning that no one knows about these rules or this friendship."

"Why? Are you ashamed of being my friend?"

"Yeah," Sloan said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Its one thing for me to be sleeping with an intern, its another thing for me to be their friend. I have a reputation as a jackass to maintain."

"Okay, whatever," Izzie said not wanting to get into anything at that moment. "Rule # 2, This will be a no judgment friendship. Meaning that you can't judge me and I won't judge you. Past and Present can't be judged. This includes no judging based on previous assumptions of the person."

"Rule # 3, no special favors or treatments. Just cause we're friends or whatever, don't think for a second that I'm going to be giving you preference over the other interns."

"Agreed, I don't want special treatment. Rule # 4, we accept opinions from each other or at least acknowledge them. Meaning if I think that you shouldn't sleep with some random bar whore, you need to make sure that you listened to me even if you don't follow my advice and the same goes for me."

"Okay, Rule # 5, no jealously. You don't get jealous if I'm with someone and I won't get jealous if you're with someone."

"Rule # 6, no sex."

"Is that a general thing? Cause if it is, friendship over."

Izzie rolled her eyes at him and continued, "No sex between us. This is strictly friendship, not friends with benefits. Adding on, no kissing, no inappropriate touching, and no flirting."

"You should add no fun to the list," Mark muttered but after seeing the death stare she was giving him, "Fine. No drinking alone."

"What?"

"You can't get drunk alone. If you need to get drunk, you call the other person. It'll save you from a coyote ugly moment," Sloan said looking up for a moment and shuddering.

"Umm…okay," Izzie said obviously not wanting to know about that. "No comments about my past as a model. Everyone knows about it, its old news so how about we move on. "

"Wait, you were seriously a model? I thought that that was something the nurses came up with cause they were jealous."

"Okay, apparently everyone didn't know and I just stupidly confirmed a rumor. Okay, yes I was a model. I did it to pay for med school, end of story. Now drop it otherwise rule # 6 won't matter cause you won't be having sex with anyone."

"Umm…okay," Mark replied trying to figure out whether or not she was serious.

"Good. Rule # 12, we are each other's pretend significant other, or each other's SOS. If either of us is on a date and need to be saved, we call the other person."

Mark, kind of enjoying himself now, continued, "We keep each other in the loop with the gossip concerning the other person to prepare ourselves."

Izzie nodded and continued, "No leaving the other person hanging. Its hoes (pointing to herself) and bros (pointing to Mark) over bros and hoes."

"Is that something I'm supposed to understand?"

"It means if I need you, you dump whatever skank you're with and come over. And I would dump whatever guy I'm with and come see you if you need it."

"Okay. No laying next to me in bed Stevens," Mark said giving her his McSteamy smirk.

"What?" Izzie asked clearly shocked.

"Well I've heard rumors that you and Grey used to just get into bed with O'Malley for kicks. All I'm saying is don't do it with me." When he looked at her face waiting for her smart ass reply, he realized what he had just said, "Oh crap, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"No, its okay. I get it and its staying as a rule. Rooftops are ours. Derek and Meredith have their meetings on elevators, we have ours on rooftops."

"Inside the hospital, formality. Meaning that you refer to me as Dr. Sloan and I call you Stevens or Dr. Stevens. Outside the hospital, you're Izzie and I'm Mark. Oh and no calling me McSteamy to my face."

"What you don't like it?"

"No, I like it, I think it fits perfectly," he said which elicited eye rolling from Izzie. "Its just really weird someone calling you McSteamy to your face."

"I had no intention of doing so, but okay. Rule # 18, if one of us is upset, the other will use any means necessary to cheer them up unless of course it violates the aforementioned rules."

"Damn so no comfort sex?" Mark said.

"Only in your dreams. No lies. That's a rule. No BS and no hiding the truth."

"Okay, this one is important to me. No betrayals. Yeah, I know how hypocritical that is of me, but whatever I confide in you stays between us."

"Of course. Okay, here is something I insist on. We have to meet at least once a week and talk, outside the hospital. Whether we go out to dinner or take a walk, we need to have a good conversation once a week. Deal?" Izzie said extending her hand to him.

"Deal" Mark said as he shook her hand.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N: THANK YOU SOO MUCH for the reviews. I had a pretty crappy day and it made me feel so much better. So unfortunately I won't be able to update again till Monday cause I'm trying to be good and do hard core studying for my final. This chapter picks up immediately after the last chapter. Hope you enjoy.

"Okay, so I guess Fight Club starts right now," Mark said as he got up and sat right in front of her. "Okay, so why is the thing with O'Malley making you cry? It was a one night stand, that's it. You don't have to make a big dramatic deal out of it."

"Its complicated."

"It's only complicated if you're in love with him," after a few moments of silence, "Oh shit, you're in love with him?"

"I don't know, maybe. Ugh. Why does life have to be so complicated?"

"Its only as complicated if you make it that way."

"Okay, enough about me today, what about you?"

"What about me?" Mark asked sharply.

Izzie ignoring his tone of voice continued, "Why were you in such a pissed off mood today?"

"Cause of Addison."

"What'd you do?"

"Hey! I believe that that is a violation of rule (grabbing the list out of her hand) Rule # 2. No making assumptions based on previously formed assumptions. And why does everyone think I did something?"

"I'm sorry. What happened between you two? Or is it just because she left?"

"It's part of the reason she left and may be why she might not be coming back; both of which aren't entirely my fault."

"Out with it Mark."

"Umm…I do believe we are still in the hospital."

Izzie rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, out with it Dr. Sloan."

"We had this bet that if both of us abstained from sex for 60 days then we'd try to have a real relationship. And before you start, yes seriously."

Izzie smiled a little and then pressed on, "Ok, so what happened?"

"She didn't keep up her end. I saw her just as she had finished doing it in the hospital and then when I found out I was pissed and hit on Meredith. And before you say anything, yeah I know stupid, but I'm self-destructive. She told me to grow up and let Addison go. So I told her that I lost the bet so that she wouldn't feel guilty."

"That was a really nice thing you did for her. See you're not such a bad guy."

"Yeah, well this friendship just started, give it time before I screw it up. So, you're not going to ask who see broke the pact with?"

Izzie looked down and whispered, "it was Alex wasn't it?"

"How the hell do girls do that?"

"We're not oblivious. Besides the day that George and I…you know, well Alex said he had moved on and then you wee the way Dr. Montgomery looks at him and the way he looks at her…you kinda figure out something would happen eventually."

"Can I ask you something? Why O'Malley?"

"What do you mean?"

"You are this brilliant and beautiful ex-model (after seeing the look she gave him) sorry. Beautiful young woman can have any guy she wants, why did you pick O'Malley?"

"He was there for me, he gets me. I guess that's why I love him."

All of a sudden Mark's pager goes off.

"I have to go," Mark got up and turned to face her. "But let me leave you with this last thought, are you in love with him cause you're actually in love with him? Or are you in love with the idea of him?" Seeing Izzie's face open in contemplation, "Just think about it. I'll see you tomorrow…friend."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A/N: okay so I lied. I said that I wasn't going to update till Monday, but its thunderstorming outside and I'm really not in the mood to study right now so I thought I'd type up this chapter. Thanks for the reviews. Thanks Emily, I'm going to need the luck. And Amnesie, I actually was taking a break this afternoon trying to update but I decided to try to figure out the rest of the story and how I want to end it. And Lewie45, your comment is addressed in future chapters, so please stay tuned. And SeattleGraceHospital, you have no idea how many comments I got about that, don't worry I'll get there eventually, just please be patient. I want to develop Mark/Izzie friendship a little more. As always I don't' own Grey's or its characters. Okay so without any further talking, here it is!

The next day Izzie came into the locker rooms and was a lot quieter than possible for Izzie.

"What's up with Barbie?" Cristina asked Meredith. "She's usually annoyingly happy in the mornings."

"I don't know, she's been that way since she got home last night."

"Hey, Earth to Iz. You okay?" Alex asked facing Izzie as she sat on the bench.

Izzie looked at him as if she just noticed his presence, "What? Yeah I'm fine. I'm just thinking about things."

"Clearly," Cristina sarcastically said. "Anyway, so is Bambi still trying for Mercy West? Cause that's just as bad as when Meredith was dating the vet."

"Hey!" Meredith exclaimed.

"What? A vet's not a real doctor and surgeons from Mercy West aren't really surgeons."

At that moment, George came into the locker room and everyone turned around to look at him.

"What?" George asked.

"George, why are you transferring to Mercy West?" Meredith asked.

George looked shocked and asked, "Who told you?" He looked at Izzie accusatorily "YOU?"

"I didn't say a word."

"Yeah, O'Malley, what happened? You're acting all weird like you did when you slept with Meredith," Alex stated. "Dude, O'Malley, you have uncomfortable weird sex again?"

"I AM MARRIED!! HAPPILY MARRIED!" George yelled slamming his locker door closed. Everyone stared at him in shock, everyone except Izzie who kept her head down and flinched when the door slammed.

Bailey walks in and starts on George, "O'Malley just cause you're dumb ass is considering transferring doesn't mean you can break Seattle Grace property. O'Malley you're covering the Pit today and find me when your shift is over." George stormed out of the locker room towards the pit. "Interns, too overly emotional."

"What'd Bambi do, Izzie?" Cristina asked.

"Why do you assume that I know something?"

"Cause you're his best friend," Meredith said.

"As interesting as all of this is, we have surgeries people, unless all of you want to be in the pit today," Bailey interjected.

"Forget Bambi, we're ready Dr. Bailey."

"I thought you would be. Yang-Burke, Karev-Torres, Shepherd-Stevens, and Grey-Sloan. Move it people."

Bailey left the locker room and bumped into Derek.

"Good Morning, Dr. Bailey."

"Good Morning Dr. Shepherd."

"So, Dr. Bailey, who is my intern today?"

"That would be Dr. Stevens. If you'll excuse me Dr. Shepherd, I'm due in the Clinic." As Bailey turns to leave she bumps into Dr. Sloan.

"Good morning Dr. Bailey, who's my intern for today?"

"You have Grey. And Dr. Sloan remember that these interns have exams coming up, which means no sending them to get your dry cleaning. I'm watching both of you, so leave my interns alone," Bailey said giving them one of her 'Bailey stares" before leaving.

"My, that was cheerful," Mark said sarcastically.

"That was Bailey. Hey Mark, you want to trade interns for today?"

"Why?" Mark asked smiling knowingly at him.

"Not for that," Derek said rolling his eyes. "Ever since she drowned, I feel like I need to be there for her as much as possible."

"Okay, whatever. But don't overdo it, otherwise she might feel trapped. So…me and Stevens again, that's going to be interesting."

"Mark, go easy on her. She's had a rough year and lately she's been even more distracted. She's not even baking this time," Derek seeing Mark's confused face said, "Never mind. Just be nice, don't be Mark."

"Okay." Mark said as the other interns walked out of the locker room, all but Izzie.

"Good Morning, Dr. Sloan. So what are we going to be working on today?" Meredith asked.

"Actually Grey, me and Derek switched. You're with him today. Where's Stevens?"

"She's in the locker room. Be nice Mark. She looks like she's having a bad day."

"Seriously, its not like I'm the Anti-Christ," Mark muttered to himself as he made his way into the empty locker room finding Izzie sitting on the bench. She was wiping away tears as she saw Mark walk in.

"Good morning Dr. Sloan. I guess I should get going, Dr. Shepherd is probably waiting for me," Izzie said getting up to get her stuff together.

"Me and Derek switched. You're mine today."

With that Izzie sat back down on the bench and tears started to fall again. Mark leaned against the lockers, crossed his arms and peered down at her.

"This is going to be a high maintenance friendship, isn't it?"

Izzie let out a laugh and stopped crying and wiped her tears away, "There's still time to back out, you know."

"Nah, this is more productive than sitting in my hotel room and watching infomercials. So, Stevens, what are you crying over? O'Malley again?"

"No, this one is really private. Only 2 other people know about it, Bailey and George."

"Well, Stevens, I can't help you unless you tell me," she remained silent so he continued. "Okay, well how about this? You know the rule about cheering the other person up, well meet me by the side entrance right after your shift."

"I can't. I have to study for the interns exam."

"Meet me. I'll help cheer you up and then help you prepare for the exam."

"Okay," Izzie stood up, looked in the mirror to make sure that she didn't look like she was crying, put drops in her eyes and closed the locker door. "Okay, I'm ready, let go help people. By the way, you know this cheering up thing better not include anything related to sex."

"Wow, you're kind of full of yourself. What makes you think that I'd want to sleep with you?" Mark asked.

Izzie obviously surprised stuttered, "I didn't mean…I mean."

"Relax Stevens, you know I'd do you anytime, anywhere," Mark said winking at her and giving her his McSteamy grin. He continued before she could start, "We're doing skin grafts on burn victims today."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

A/N: I'm so sorry that it took so long to update, but thankfully my summer school is finally over. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to everyone for being patient with me. Also I have never been to Seattle, so I'm making up names of places. So just to recap I don't own anything, and in the last chapter Izzie was really upset about something and Mark told her he was going to help cheer her up, per the rules. So here it is and please enjoy…

Izzie paged Mark right after she was done with her shift and waited by the rarely used side entrance of the hospital. After ten minutes of waiting, she sat down on the steps and pulled out her note cards. She was half way through memorizing all the Helicobacter pylori , when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. Izzie put a finger up indicating that he should wait and when she got the questions right she looked up.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to realize what a geek you really are," Mark said rolling his eyes. "I mean here you are waiting for an incredibly handsome man to show up and take you somewhere mysterious and you're sitting there studying."

"Well, seeing as I'm still waiting for this incredibly handsome guy to show up, I'm going to get back to studying."

"Ouch, that deflates the ego."

"Please, it's not like it needs to get any bigger."

"Anyways, seeing as you're stuck with me, you want to get going?"

"Okay, but remember, I also have to study at some point."

"Oh my God book worm," Mark said rolling his eyes at her. "I promised I'd help you study and I will but tonight is also about cheering you up about that thing that you won't tell me about (he offered her a hand) So, lets go."

Izzie looked up and him and took his hand as soon as she was up she felt him looking at her.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just thought you'd get dressed up for me," Mark commented referring to her long sleeved t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"Hey, I'm comfortable."

"I didn't say anything was wrong with it. Actually you're dressed perfectly for what I have planned."

"Which would be?"

"You'll see," Mark said smirking at her before leading her towards his car.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twenty minutes later they arrived at Emerald City Park. He led her towards the baseball field.

"So we're going to watch people play baseball? You really thought that'd make me feel better? Wow, you kind of suck at this."

"Oh ye of little faith," Mark said as he continued walking towards the end of the field until he realized that she wasn't behind him. "Oh, come on, it'll be fun."

"Oh Izzie, what are you getting yourself into?" Izzie asked herself as she followed him. He led her to the edge of the park and she looked at him in shock. "You took me to the batting cages?"

"Believe me, after this you'll feel a hell of a lot better," He said handing her the helmet and bat. "You want me to teach you how this works?"

"You should be begging me to teach you how to play Mark. Now get out of the cage," Izzie commanded putting the helmet on and stepping up the plate.

Mark got out of the cage and watched Izzie hitting the balls. At first she was hitting lightly and then after a while each hit kept getting more and more forceful. And her concentration was incredible every time she hit the ball. After her time was up, Mark stared at her in awe. She had only missed 3 balls out of the 50 that were thrown at her. As she got out of the cage, Mark handed her a water bottle.

"Thanks," Izzie said taking a drink of water. "And thanks a lot for this. It really did help. It cleared my head."

"Where did you learn to hit like that?"

"Trailer park baseball. Not as sophisticated as little league but just as deadly."

"Okay, so should we go and study now?" Mark asked.

Izzie upon hearing the ice cream truck said, "how about I buy us ice cream and we take a detour on the way to the car and then study?"

"Sure."

Izzie brought the ice cream and her and Mark started walking the path back to the car.

"So why the batting cages?" Izzie asked as she licked her ice cream.

"Originally I was going to take you rock climbing but I thought that might be a little too intense right now. So I decided on the batting cages. When me and Addison had the sex bet going, I would come here every other day and put all my sexual frustrations into hitting the ball. Who would have thought that exercising would take your mind off of sex, at least for a little while."

"So what happened after the sex-bet ended? Did you find someone to hook up with?"

"Okay personal, but I'll answer cause we're friends and that's what friends do, they share personal information about each other. Or at least that's what they do on TV. Yeah, the end of the sex-bet was kind of an epiphany for me. I realized that if I went 32 days without sex for someone that I thought I loved, I might be able to wait and be faithful to someone that I not only love but also like as a person."

"That's a really mature thing to say Mark," Izzie said before she went silent and then after a few moments she started speaking again. "I have a daughter. That's who I was crying over today, not George but her. I have an 11-year old daughter that I gave up for adoption so that she could have a better life. She was here a few weeks ago, in the hospital. She had acute myeloid leukemia and she needed a bone marrow transplant. So I gave her my bone marrow but she didn't want to meet me. I got a letter yesterday from her adoptive parents, they said that she was responding to the therapy really well and there was no rejection."

After a few seconds of silence, Mark started speaking. "Izzie, she didn't reject the marrow, that's great news. You should be crying tears of joy not tears of sorrow."

"I have a child and I could have almost lost her and I would never have known about it. And now that I have a second chance to be in her life, she doesn't want to know me. Do you realize how painful that kind of rejection is? To lose a child before you could ever get to know them?" Izzie blurted out her voice thick with emotion.

"We're at the car, time to help you study," Mark said as he bend down to unlock the car door and then he stood straight again and looked at Izzie who looked crestfallen. "Give her time Izzie, Let her adjust that all that is going on in her life and let her process it. Give her time and she'll realize that you saved her life when you didn't have to. She'll look for you if not because she wants to know you then she'll look for you out of curiosity. Once she gets to know you, she'll love you. And for the record, anyone would be lucky to have you in their life and for you to be their friend."

Izzie was overwhelmed and looked at him unable to think of what to say. Thank you didn't seem like an appropriate enough phrase after that. So for lack of something better to say, Izzie said, "Okay, well, time to go."

A/N: sorry if there are run-ons or typos but its midnight and I just wanted to post this up cause its been so long. Happy 4th of July everyone!!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A/N: thanks for the reviews. I am going to try my very best to update as much as I can before I go away this weekend. So here it is…

After an all night study session in Mark's office at the hospital, Mark fell asleep on his sofa and Izzie fell asleep on the floor surrounded by note cards and textbooks. She woke up around 5am and realized that she had rounds starting in an hour. She got up and gathered her study materials and junk food wrappers. She went to go pick up a book that was by Mark's hand and she looked at him and was amazed by how innocent he looked when he slept. Then she started laughing a little at the trail of drool coming from his mouth. She found a blanket on the back of his desk chair and draped it over his sleeping form. As she looked at him, she finally thought of a perfect response. She lightly kissed his forehead and whispered into his ear, "Thank you Mark for being my only true friend."

With that she made sure he was still asleep and she got up and walked up to the door. She lightly closed it and then crept into the hallway where she bumped into Alex.

"God, Alex, sorry. What are you doing here? Rounds don't start for another hour."

"Wow, Izzie, you scared me. I was on-call last night and I just woke up from the on-call room. Did I just see you coming out of Sloan's office?"

"What? No, What?" Izzie answered flustered with a deer in the headlights expression on her face.

"Were you in Sloan's office all night?" Alex asked referring to Izzie's disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes. "Izzie, what are you doing? Is that why you went to confession? Are you doing Sloan?"

"I was studying. I asked him if I could use his office to study, end of story. And I didn't go to confession cause of him."

"Then why did you go to confession?" Alex inquired, trying to get to the truth.

"To repent. Oh crap," Izzie said looking at her watch. "It's 5:15am, I still have to shower and change and eat before rounds. See you later Alex." Izzie basically jogged her way down to the locker room trying to get away from Alex as quickly as possible.

Alex, watching her go, muttered to himself, "She's acting as weird as O'Malley." Alex stopped and thought about what he just said. "Oh crap!" Alex went down the hall following Izzie. He finally caught up to her by the snack cart getting food. She was freshly showered, her hair still wet. She was paying for her food when Alex walked up to her.

Izzie took a bite of her muffin and said "Hey Alex, they have really muffins today."

"Come with me," Alex commanded as he grabbed her by the hem of her shirt and dragged her into an empty exam room at the end of the corridor away from any patients, doctors, or nurses.

"Alex, what?" Izzie asked sitting down on the bed.

"You pulled a Meredith." Alex accused.

"What?" Izzie asked trying to hide her guilt by acting confused.

"You slept with George."

"Why would you think that?" Izzie said in a last ditch effort of trying to get out of this situation.

"Please, its so obvious. You two have been acting weird towards each other and avoiding each other like last year with Meredith and the awkward sex. Izzie, what the hell?! He's married. How the hell did it happen?"

"Like you said, we pulled a Meredith. We had too much Bourbon and had drunk sex. Alex, you can't tell anyone," Izzie begged.

"I won't. But does Callie know?"

"I wanted to tell her but George didn't want to."

Alex looked at her intently, "Izzie, this was a one-time thing right? You don't have feelings for him, do you?"

"Honestly, I don't know, I might…" Izzie confessed.

"Iz, whatever this is, you have to stop. He's married; you can't come between him and Callie. It's not fair to either of them and its not fair to you. Izzie you are too amazing a person to be someone's mistress."

"Thank you, Alex. How much do you hate me?" Izzie asked looking saddened.

"I don't hate you Iz. Why would I hate you?" Alex asked confused.

"Cause I was so bitchy to you when you cheated. And cause I don't deserve to be forgiven."

"Izzie, we all do horrible stupid things. But the thing is we need to forgive each other for them."

"Alex, you're an amazing too, you know that?" Izzie said looking a little happier. "You deserve to be happy and you should be with someone who makes you happy."

"What are you talking about?"

"You and Addison. I know you're the reason that her and Sloan's sex-bet didn't last. She's a good person Alex. Don't hurt her and don't get scared and screw it up. Whatever you did to her, apologize."

Alex looked at her suspiciously, "How did you know we had sex? That didn't even spread to the nurses."

"I have my ways, but seriously, make it better," Izzie said mysteriously and then looked at her watch. "Its 5:50am, time to go. Rounds start in 10 minutes."

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The interns were in the locker room waiting for Bailey.

"Hey Izzie, where were you last night, you didn't come home. You get lucky? " Meredith asked smiling at her.

Izzie rolled her eyes at her and said, "I was studying."

"Where? You found a secret study area?" 

"Mer, if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret."

"Okay, whatever keep your secret studying place. Anyways, we're going to Joe's after work, you in?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Why are you fools going to bars?" Bailey said walking into the locker room. "You have you're test in a few weeks. Don't you fools do something stupid and fail. Alright, assignments. Yang-Shepherd, Karev-Sloan, O'Malley-Burke, Grey-you're with me in the clinic, and Stevens-Montgomery."

"Wait, Dr. Montgomery is back? When?" Izzie asked a little too anxiously.

Bailey looked at her curiously before responding, "Dr. Montgomery came back this morning and you are on her cases today. So get moving."

As the other interns made to leave, Izzie held Alex back a little.

"Did you know she was back?"

"No, I had no idea. And Izzie you were wrong about me and her. I mean I obviously screwed up big time if she didn't even want me on her cases."

"Alex, I'm going to tell you something. A little view into the female mind, you ready for it? Here it is: Guys are ALWAYS wrong. So suck it up and go grovel for forgiveness."

"Thanks, Iz," Alex said before realization hit him. "Oh crap!"

"What?"

"I'm with Sloan today. Oh he's going to want my head on a stick."

"Be nice to him Alex," Izzie said immediately. "But don't be too nice. Don't be the nice where you're basically like 'sorry I screwed up your chance at the first real relationship of your life with the woman you love but let me prove that I'm not a bastard by kissing your ass all day.' Treat him like you normally would."

Alex looked at Izzie suspiciously, "Izzie, seriously, what is going on between the two of you?"

"Nothing. Not every one of Bailey's interns needs to sleep with an attending," Izzie replied. "I got to go do something and then find Dr. Montgomery but I'll see you later. Good luck today Alex."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A/N: sorry for the serious lack of Mark and Izzie in the last chapter, if it were up to me, they would be together all the time. But since I think it was about time Izzie interacted with some of the other characters again. So I'm updating again today, and I have it planned out so that I have the chapter I want up right before I leave this weekend. So here is a chapter full of McStizzie….

There was a knock at Sloan's office door which caused him to wake up with a start. Rubbing his eyes and slightly annoyed at the wake up call, he grunted, "Come in."

"Good Morning," Izzie said brightly as she entered his office annoyingly awake.

"It would be if someone didn't keep me awake all night with her need to turn the different hospital acquired infections into a song," Mark replied.

"Hey, it worked didn't it? It only took till 3am."

Mark got off the sofa and stretched his arms above his head causing his t-shirt to rise revealing several inches of his muscular stomach. Izzie found herself staring thinking, _very nice._

Mark caught her staring and smirked at her and said, "Like what you see? You could see more, you just have to say when."

Izzie turned red at being caught staring and quickly countered, "You're so full of yourself."

"Yeah, so?" Mark said before he caught Izzie glaring at him. "So, anyway, what cases are we working on today?" He said as he walked into his closet and came out holding clothes. "Cause if they're non-emergent, then I'm going to go shower."

"Actually, I'm not your intern today."

"Then why are you here?" Mark questioned staring at her before realizing something. "Oh, Addison's back, isn't she?"

"Yeah and I thought you might need a little pick me up so," she said as she held out a large bone dry cappuccino and a blueberry scone.

"What happened to your whole 'I'm not your slave' thing?"

"Today, you get an exception." 

Mark smiled at her and took the cappuccino and scone from her, "Thanks Stevens. So, who's my intern today?"

"Hence, the reason for the additional brownie at the bottom of the bag."

"Great, Karev."

"Be nice, please. He knows about me and George, so I'm asking, as your friend to be nice."

"Fine," Mark replied as he heard another knock at the door. "Come in."

Alex walked into Sloan's office "Good morning Dr. Sloan, I brought you your cappuccino and …." He said trialing off after seeing Izzie standing there next to a disheveled looking Sloan.

"Well Karev, you have to get quicker than that. Stevens already got me those and she's not even on my service today."

"Okay, well I should get going. I'll see you later Alex. Have a good day, Dr. Sloan." Izzie said as she walked towards the door.

"Stevens?"

Izzie stopped at the doorway and turned around, "Yes, Dr. Sloan?"

"That brownie better be worth it."

Izzie smiled at him and replied, "Give it a chance."

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After their shifts, the interns were at Joe's having drinks. Izzie, Cristina, and Meredith were talking when Alex walked in. Izzie waved and flagged him over.

"Hey Alex!"

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Alex said as he sat down next to Meredith.

"I got to scrub in on an in utero fetal tumor resection today. I'm on such an adrenalin high. I actually got to touch a 5 month old fetus." Izzie said with enthusiasm.

"I still think Gynie's for girls, but even I have to admit, that was awesome." Cristina said.

"No, that was pretty freaking amazing," Meredith corrected.

"So Alex, how was your day?" Izzie asked.

"Not as awesome as yours, man I would have loved to be in on that surgery, but pretty good. I actually got to scrub in on a surgery today, not just observe. I don't know what you did to Sloan, but thanks Iz."

"What'd you do to Sloan?" Meredith asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh my God, are you doing McSteamy?" Cristina exclaimed.

"What? No." Izzie answered flustered.

"Oh please, why else would Sloan do anything like that. Wow, you're doing McSteamy! Is he good? Cause he looks like he'd be incredibly good. No wonder you keep ending up with Plastics rotations. He probably has you at his beck and call," Cristina stated.

"I'm not sleeping with Sloan!! He's my attending. And I do NOT answer to his beck and call," Izzie heatedly replied. Suddenly Izzie's beeper started vibrating on the table, Izzie reached to get it but Cristina was quicker.

"Well, guess who it is? Izzie is getting a 911 booty call from McSteamy," Cristina said with a grin. Izzie snatched the beeper from Cristina's hand and read the page.

"I gotta go, I'll see you tomorrow," Izzie said gathering her stuff and leaving.

"Seriously? Izzie and Mark?" Meredith exclaimed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Izzie read the rest of the page which told her to meet him on the roof. When she got there, she saw him sitting on the ledge facing the door.

"He, so sending me 911 emergencies when I'm out with my friends and not on your service, its kind of an indicator that something's up between us," Izzie said taking a seat on the floor so that she was facing him. "So, what's up?"

"Last night when you asked me if I knew what it was like to lose a child before you got to know them, I didn't tell you the truth and then when Addison came back all that emotional stuff came back to me. When Addison and I were in New York, she got pregnant with my baby. A week after she told me, she had an abortion because she didn't want me to be the father of her child. So yeah, Izzie, I do know what it feels like to face that kind of rejection."

Izzie looked at him in shock and then after a few seconds of silence, she softly whispered, "Mark, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, well at least you know one of the reasons why I'm so damaged." Mark tried to say nonchalantly but his voice was tinged with emotion.

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you ready for a child?"

"I thought so at the time but now that I think about it, back then I wasn't ready. Addison said she thought I would make a terrible father. Maybe she was right."

"Maybe she was," Izzie replied.

"Umm…Isn't this the part where you're supposed to be like, 'no, of course she was wrong,'" Mark said.

"If you let me finish…Maybe she was right that you'd make a terrible father. But that was back then. I mean look how much you've matured in the past couple months. You were there for Derek when Meredith drowned, even though he still hated you. You loved Addison and you did the best thing that a person can do when they're in love with someone who doesn't love them, you let her go and you took the blame for something she did. Believe it or not Mark Sloan, but you've grown up."

"I guess I have. Wow, when did that happen?"

"Things change, people change."

"Hey Iz, you want to know what's scary? I think I'm ready to settle down and have kids now. I want the whole domestic setting and the nauseatingly perfect life."

"We all do," Izzie said taking a breath before continuing. "Okay, so our first order of business tomorrow is to start finding you a girl who you could have a long-term relationship with."

"Why not tonight?"

"Cause I have a test coming up soon and you need to go home and sleep. You look like hell."

"Gee, thanks," Mark said sarcastically. "When did brutal honesty become part of the rules?"

"When the truth needs to be told," Izzie replied. "Oh yeah, by the way, thanks for being nice to Alex today. It means a lot to me."

"Who said I was nice cause of you?"

"Please, you only got me as a friend. You should be on your hands and knees kissing my ass begging me to never stop being your friend." Izzie retorted.

"You're really cocky, you know that?" Mark asked.

"Thanks, I learned it from my friend," Izzie answered smiling at him before the two of them walked back into the hospital.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

A/N: I'm SOOOO sorry it took so long to post up a new chapter. I left earlier than I thought for vacation and then I've been working 14 hour days since I got back, its been crazy. Again I'm really sorry that I suck. And thanks for the amazing reviews. Lilly and Bethany, hope you guys are having an amazing vacation. And Amanda, I'm sorry about not posting like I did last week with 3 in 2 days, it's been an insane week. But I'm going to try to be better. As usual, ABC and Shondra own Grey's. Okay, I'm going to stop talking now…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It's been a few weeks since Mark and Izzie on the roof. The interns had just taken their exams 2 days earlier and are anxiously waiting for the results. The girls, Meredith, Callie, and Cristina, just returned from dress shopping for the wedding and sat down to have drinks at Joe's with Derek, George, and Alex.

"Freaking Mama and my mother had me try on over 100 dresses today. Half of them were fluffy and frilly and happy," Cristina said frustrated and plopped down in a chair next to Alex.

"At least we found dresses that weren't pink, baby blue, and didn't have a giant bow on the ass, so I'm good." Callie replied kissing George on the cheek and sitting down next to him.

"Hey, so where's Izzie? You guys ditch after shopping? I thought she was coming today," Alex inquired.

"I don't know, she left the fitting right after we decided on the dresses and said she didn't feel well and that she was going home. But I haven't seen her since," Meredith replied.

"I'm going to get a drink, anyone want anything?" Derek asked.

"Hard liquor. Vodka, Whisky, Scotch, etc. Anything to forget the last few hours of hell," Cristina replied.

"Umm…okay. Anyone else?" Derek asked. Everyone gave Derek their orders and he made his way to the bar. After giving Joe his orders, he noticed Mark with an attractive brunette and went to over to him.

"Hey Mark."

Mark looked over to Derek, slightly surprised that he made the first move, and said brightly.

"Hey Derek, this is Annie she's a lawyer for Seattle Presbyterian's legal department. Annie this is my friend Derek he's head of Neurosurgery at Seattle Grace" Derek and the brunette politely shook hands.

"So Derek, how was your day? Any good surgeries?" Mark asked.

"Yeah actually," Derek responded but paused when he saw Izzie enter the bar, pass by her friends and sit at the table by the window far away from the interns. "But I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow and it was nice meeting you Annie."

Derek walked back to the group and handed everyone their drinks and concernedly asked, "Hey, what's up with Izzie?"

"I don't know she completely bypassed us and made a motion saying to leave her alone and sat in the corner table. Should one of us go over there?" Meredith asked.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After Derek's hasty exit, Mark looked over to see what caught his attention and he saw Izzie sitting alone and downing shot after shot of Tequila.

"Oh man, seriously?" Mark muttered to himself.

"What?" Annie asked.

"I really wished I didn't have to do this but I have to go help a friend," Mark said getting up. "Stupid rules."

"You mean that blonde?" Annie asked sounding kind of jealous.

"Yeah, I have to go."

"Are you really ditching me, ME, on our date to go chase some blonde?" Annie said angrily.

"I really have to go, she's my friend. I'm really sorry. Have a good night," Mark said picking up his drink and making his way to Izzie's table and sat down next to her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back at the interns table where they just witnessed Mark ditching his hot date to be with Izzie.

"I guess she's got it covered," Cristina said taking a large gulp of her whiskey.

"When did Sloan and Izzie become friends?" George asked.

"From what I heard, it's more than that. One of the nurses said that Izzie was in Sloan's office a few weeks ago and she was in there all night and that he came out of his office the next morning looking seriously disheveled," Callie said.

"Izzie and Sloan? Seriously?" George asked with a tinge of jealously in his voice.

"That's just what I heard?" Callie replied a little too sharply.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You're breaking the no drinking alone rule," Mark said as he sat down next to Izzie.

"Yeah, well, I've had a pretty crappy day," Izzie replied downing another shot. "And why are you here? You seemed to be hitting it off with the brunette."

"Rule # 14: hoes (pointing to Izzie) and Bros (pointing to himself) over bros and hoes. So what's up?"

"Nothing," Izzie said downing another shot.

"You're going to tell me anyways, so you may as well start now. And no more tequila either, I'm not going to clean up your puke," Mark said moving the bottle away from her and motioned to Joe. "Hey Joe can we get coffee over here, please? Thanks."

"I went bridesmaids shopping today." Izzie stated.

"Okay? Isn't that supposed to be a fun thing?" Mark asked confused.

"I went bridesmaid shopping today and all I could think about when I saw Cristina trying on those dresses was that that should be me. I should be the one trying on wedding dresses and putting Meredith and Cristina through the pain of finding non-ugly bridesmaid dresses and George was supposed to be my best person and I was supposed to be marrying Denny. And that I'm the one who was supposed to be having this fairytale happy ending," Izzie rambled off and started sobbing. "You asked me before if I was really in love with George and I realized today that I don't love him. I still love Denny, and I miss him so much. I think that I made myself love George romantically cause it dulled the pain of missing Denny, but I don't love George like that. I just wanted a distraction and not to deal with the grief. And today when I tried on the dresses, I felt like Denny was right there with me and I realized that I was insulting what we had together by pursuing George. God, Denny must be so disappointed in me." She started sobbing harder before continuing, "And for some reason, you're the only person that I can trust to be there for me and to not judge me."

Mark took a breath, put his hand over hers and squeezed them, "Izzie Stevens, you listen to me, now I know that I didn't know Denny but if he loved you and you loved him, he must have been an amazing guy. So there is no way that he could ever be disappointed in you. He understands that you need to move on with your life and although you chose a pretty crappy rebound relationship or whatever, he understands and forgives you." Mark took one of his hands and cupped her face and turned it towards him. "You messed up but you are in no way a disappointment. You are a good kind person that deserves to be happy." He let go of her face and put his hands back on hers.

"I just miss Denny so much. I imagined this life with him, marriage, house, kids, naughty word scrabble, all of it. He knew me, the real me, he got me, he was my soul mate. And the waves of hurt aren't waves anymore, they're constant and painful again."

Mark squeezed her hands tightly, "Its okay that you still love and miss him. The pain takes time to go away you just have to let it. You can still love someone and let them go and move on yourself. You can have all of it, just give it time and put yourself out there."

"What if I forget him?" 

"Trust me, when you love someone like that, they stay in your heart forever."

Izzie's sobbing quieted down and she softly asked, "When did you become all wise and sage like? How do you know?"

"I watch a lot of TV," Mark replied as he squeezed her hand even tighter and kissed her on the forehead.

Izzie started laughing and replied, "That's technically considered inappropriate touching."

"Shut up, I'm your friend." Mark retorted.

Izzie squeezed his hand, "Thank you for being my friend."

"My pleasure. Now come on, I'll drive you home."

"Okay." Izzie said as Mark paid for their drinks and they got up and made their way to the parking lot.

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Back at the Intern's table.

"Umm, what the hell was that?" Derek asked in shock.

"Am I really that drunk or did I just see McSteamy kissing Izzie?" Cristina asked.

"It's probably nothing right? I mean Izzie knows better than to do something that stupid." George supplied.

"You would think you would," Alex muttered to himself.

George and Callie both heard him. George was shocked into silence while Callie said, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ask George."

Meredith, sensing something was up said, "As interesting as that is, isn't anyone worried about Izzie? I mean she just went home with McSteamy, or did I just imagine it?" At that minute Addison came in and sat down.

"Okay, did I just see Stevens and Mark leave together? What the hell happened while I was in LA?" Addison asked taking Derek's drink out of his hand and downing it.

Derek looked at her, annoyed that she stole his drink, but ignored it and said, "I don't know but we have to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand."

"What do you have in mind?" Addison asked.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews they totally brightened up my weekend. Happy Belated Birthday Amanda, hope you had an awesome day. Thanks Gigi and Meijkej for making me feel like I'm not the only person who misses Denny. But unfortunately since they can't bring him back, I'll be so happy if they do mcstizzie, it'll make me love the show as much as I did in the second season. Okay, so here is chapter 10…

Chapter 10

The next day Izzie got a 911 page from the Chief's office. She walked in and sat down wondering why she was being called in. About two minutes later Mark walked in and looked at Izzie confused.

"Hey," Izzie said staring up at Mark.

"Hey, you got paged too?" Mark asked sitting next to Izzie. "Why? Why did he want to see both of us? We didn't kill a patient that I wasn't aware of, did we?"

Izzie let out a dry laugh and said, "Not as far as I know."

"Then why are we here?"

At that minute the Chief walks in and sits down at his desk across from Izzie and Mark.

"I guess you both are wondering why you are here?" The Chief said with an exhausted and slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Yes, sir," Izzie replied.

"I have received some complaints about you two from some of the other members of the staff."

"I understand me, but what would Stevens and I do that would cause complaints to be launched at us from other people?" Mark asked with a confused expression on his face.

"Okay, I was hoping to ease into this but I'm tired and very close to retiring so here it is: Dr. Sloan are you engaging in a sexual relationship with Dr. Stevens?"

Both Mark and Izzie stood up and looked at the Chief in utter shock.

"Excuse me?" Izzie said.

At the same time Mark said, "What?!"

"Settle down and sit down and only one at a time. Stevens you first."

"Sir, I am not involved in any sort of sexual relationship with Dr. Sloan and nor do I want to," Izzie stated before turning to Mark. "No offense."

"None taken," Mark replied giving her a reassuring smile before turning to the chief. "What lead you to believe this Chief?"

"I heard that you and Dr. Stevens were at Joe's last night and that you were holding hands and kissing."

"No offense Chief and no disrespect intended but what Dr. Sloan or myself do outside this hospital is our own business."

"Yes Stevens, but what happens inside this hospital is," The Chief replied.

"Sir?" Izzie asked clearly confused.

"There was also a report that both you and Dr. Sloan spent the night together in his office. Someone reported that your clothes were disheveled and it had seemed as if the two of you were and I quote, 'up all night doing something exhausting,'" The Chief supplied clearly annoyed with all this drama.

"Seriously?" Izzie said before turning to Mark, "Seriously?!"

"So what is going on between the two of you? Obviously you two have a relationship that extends beyond student-teacher, so what is it? Do I have another attending-intern relationship going on?"

"Of course not," Mark said resolutely before turning to Izzie, "No offense."

"None Taken," Izzie said smiling back at him.

"Should we just tell him?" Mark asked Izzie acting as if the Chief wasn't in the room.

"Are you sure? Cause if we tell him then we're breaking rule number 1," Izzie replied.

"Him is still in the room and him wants to know what the hell is going on," The Chief replied his voice getting angrier.

"Sir, Stevens and I are friends, that's it. Actually Chief, scratch that, Stevens and I are best friends," Mark declared.

"We are?" Izzie asked lighting up. When he smiled at her, she said, "Wow, I guess we are."

"Just friends?" Then why were you two talking about rules?" Chief asked clearly skeptical.

"We made rules that govern this friendship so that this one lasts unlike our other previous friendships. We were both at a really low point in our lives and just needed a friend, so we befriended each other." Izzie explained.

"What about the kissing and the handholding?" The Chief pressed on.

"I was upset about Denny and Dr. Sloan was there to squeeze my hand and tell me it was going to be okay. As far as the kissing, all he did was give me a comfort kiss on the forehead. As for Dr. Sloan and me in his office, I was studying and he was helping me to study for the interns exam."

"So, just friends?" The Chief said slowly, trying to grasp the concept.

"Yes, Chief, just friends," Mark supplied. "If you wouldn't mind, we would prefer if everyone didn't know about this friendship. It would cause too much drama to occur amongst our respective group of friends."

As Mark finished that sentence he realized something and closed his eyes before speaking again.

"Who I'm guessing were the ones to tell you about their suspicions about us."

"Wouldn't you like to set the record straight?" The Chief asked.

"With all due respect Chief, you're the only one whose opinion even vaguely matters. As for the rest of them, let them think what they want," Izzie replied.

"Okay, well enjoy your umm….friendship and go save some lives." The Chief responded.

The two of them left the Chief's office and stood outside on the bridge facing the front entrance.

"Quick thinking in there Stevens. You're good under pressure."

"You have no idea," Izzie replied. "You too by the way. I can't believe they went all juvenile and told on us."

"Its like being in second grade again, except this time I didn't do it."

Izzie laughed and was quiet for a second before speaking again.

"Hey, Dr. Sloan, thanks again for last night. I needed someone and you were there for me when you didn't have to be. You even ditched your hot date for me, so thanks again."

"No problem, that's how a friendship works as I vaguely recall. You are there for the person when they need you," Mark replied. "Okay, so Stevens, this weekend, what are we going to do for our weekly get together? You want to go clubbing in Seattle? We can be each other's wingman? Person?"

"I can't this weekend, I got the wedding on Friday. Hey, but why don't you come as my date?" Izzie suggested.

"Date?" Mark asked raising his eyebrows suggestively at her and giving her his McSteamy smirk.

"Not date-date but escort …in a non-male hooker sense," Izzie rambled off clearly flustered.

Mark started laughing before he said, "I love hearing your non-sensical babble. Of course I'll be your, what's the phrase, 'escort,' I'd be honored. And I will try my hardest not to do a repeat performance from the last wedding I went to."

"Yeah I'm so not even going to ask."

"What about our meddlesome friends? Aren't they going to be wondering what's going on between us? I mean they already got the Chief involved cause they saw us talking, Imagine what would happen if they see us at the wedding together?"

"Oh my God you're right! You mean when they see us together at a wedding, dancing? Or even more scandalous, you and me, together, eating cake. Oh God, maybe you are right, maybe we shouldn't go," Izzie said with an expression of fake dread on her face.

Mark playfully shoved her before smiling at her. "You're a regular laugh riot you know that?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm awesome," Izzie said smiling. "As for our friends, screw them. Who cares about the rumors they fueled about us. It should be interesting when they finally find out the truth, then they'll actually have something for people to talk about."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. As usual I don't own Grey's or its Characters.

Chapter 11

It's the day of Burke and Cristina's wedding. Izzie arrived with Meredith, Cristina, and Callie. They were all getting along and the wedding went through without a hitch. Everyone is now at the reception. Meredith and Izzie were sitting alone at the wedding party's table. Meredith, who hadn't spoken to Izzie all week since the night at the bar, was sitting with her, trying to start a conversation to figure out what was going on with her and Mark.

"So, Izzie, what's going on with you lately? We haven't talked much lately," Meredith pried trying to be stealthy at it but failing miserably.

"Nothing much," Izzie coyly replied. "You know; same old."

"You've been coming home pretty late lately," Meredith pushed further.

"Yeah, I've been studying really late at my secret and quite study space and I've been busy with other stuff," Izzie said vaguely taking a sip of her water. She smiled briefly as she saw Meredith getting frustrated at the lack of information she was getting.

"Oh really? Now that exams are over, where is your study space? And what other stuff have you been busy with?" Meredith said not giving up.

Derek came up to the table interrupting them. "Hey, you both look incredibly beautiful. Can I get you two drinks?"

Meredith kissed him on the cheek and said, "Champagne please."

"Izzie?" Derek asked.

Izzie was about to respond when a drink was placed in front of her.

"White wine," Mark said before turning to Derek. "Thanks man, but I got it covered."

"Hey," Izzie said brightly moving her stuff off the seat next to her.

"Hey, sorry I'm late but I got stuck in surgery," Mark said bending down to kiss her on the cheek before sitting down next to her.

"By the way, you really do look amazing," Mark said looking her up and down taking in how beautiful she looked in her chocolate brown bridesmaid dress and simple jewelry and make up and smiled at her when he said "Definitely a non-ugly bridesmaid dress."

Izzie blushed before responding, "Thanks, you too." He was wearing a plain black suit, white shirt, and blue tie that matched his eyes perfectly. Even though he was wearing a simple suit, it made him look even more handsome.

Noticing that Izzie was still staring at him, "Izzie, I know I look hot but stop drooling, it's not dignified."

Izzie rolled her eyes and hit him on the arm.

"Umm, okay, before this awkwardness continues, I'm going to go get drinks," Derek said uncomfortably before leaving to get drinks.

As Derek left, Alex, Addison, Callie, George, Cristina and Burke joined Izzie, Mark and Meredith at the table. They all sat down and were shocked to see Mark and Izzie together.

"So, what are you two up to?" Alex asked curiously looking at Izzie and Mark.

"Oh my God, you two aren't dating are you?" Cristina asked bluntly.

"Izzie, McSteamy's your date for tonight?" Meredith asked incredulously.

"I prefer the term escort," Mark retorted before turning to Izzie. "Izzie, would you like to dance?" He held out his hand and smiled and winked at her.

Izzie took his hand, a smile tugging at her mouth, "Of course, how can I resist?"

The two of them made their way to the dance floor and they had danced and laughed for a long time.

"So how are you?" Mark asked Izzie.

"I'm fine."

"How are you really?" Mark asked looking closer at Izzie's face. "If this is too much, we could leave, I mean, its been a pretty crazy couple weeks with our friendship, each of our emotional breakdowns, and your exam, all I'm saying is that we could leave if you want."

Izzie smiled at his thoughtfulness before saying, "No, I'm really okay. I'm just really happy for them. And I don't feel like crying right now about what should have been, but if I do…"

"Then I'm here," Mark finished.

"Thanks."

"Of course. By the way, take a quick glance to your right, but don't be too obvious.

Izzie moved closer into Mark's arms putting her head on his shoulder and glancing out of the corner of her eye.

"Seriously?" Izzie said seeing not only their friends staring at them, but most of the other hospital staff that was invited.

"Yup," Mark laughed. "Apparently we're attracting more attention than the bride and groom."

"Isn't it sad how much they need lives if the highlight of their week is spreading rumors about us doing dirty in your office," Izzie said lifting her head so that she could look at Mark again.

"Speaking of that magical night in my office," Mark said as he smirked at her and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a white envelop and waved it in her face as they stopped dancing. "I charmed my way into delivering this to you personally."

"The intern results?" Izzie asked nervously as her face grew more anxious.

"Yup, I believe everyone else got theirs but since you only had to work till 12 today, you didn't get yours," Mark continued waving the envelop in her face. "You want it now or later?"

"Seriously Mark, if you don't give me that envelop right now, I'm going to rip it from your cold dead hands," Izzie said gravely.

"Well, since you asked so politely," Mark said sarcastically before handing her the envelop.

Izzie looked at the envelop before frowning. "Mark, its already open."

Mark shrugged before responding, "what can I say, it was a long 20 minute drive here."

Izzie glared at him for a minute before turning her attention back to the envelop. She took out the results and screamed for joy before jumping into Mark's arms.

"Yes, thank God, I passed!"

Mark released her from the hug and said, "Actually, not only did you pass, but you had the second highest score after Yang."

"Oh my God, seriously?" Izzie asked. When Mark nodded, Izzie jumped into his arms again and when she pulled away she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you so much. If it wasn't for you helping me, I don't think I could have done this."

"If you really want to thank me," Mark started smiling at her mischievously. "You could…"

"Nice try Mark, but I'm not doing anything with you that involves me being naked."

"Actually Miss Dirty Mind, I was going to suggest that our next get together be a movie night at your place. It's more comfortable than us hanging out at my hotel room. You could provide all snacks and food. Sunday night good? We both have off, I think."

"Deal. Oh my God, this is so awesome. You're so awesome, you totally just made my day," Izzie said cheerfully.

"Okay, before this starts getting all girly and mushy, how about I get us some refills on our drinks and you get us something to eat and we'll meet back at the table."

"Sounds good. I'll still take a white wine."

"No, we're celebrating. Celebrating calls for Champagne."

"Okay," Izzie said smiling brightly at him.

They split up and Izzie went to the food line where she stood behind Callie.

"Hey Callie, are you enjoying yourself?"

Callie looked surprised that Izzie was talking to her, but quickly responded, "Hey Izzie. Yeah I am. You look like you are too. So you and Sloan?"

"No comment. So listen Callie, since I actually have you here for a second, I just wanted to apologize for being a selfish bitch to you. And I'm sorry for monopolizing your husband and for a lot of other things I did to you. Honestly, I really think you're okay. I also have another thing to apologize for but now isn't the place but I just wanted to say I'm sorry and that I'm going to try to be better."

"Thanks Izzie, that means a lot," Callie responded clearly taken back.

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Meanwhile on the other side of the hall, Mark was standing on the line for the bar when George steps up next to him.

"Dr. Sloan, are you having fun? I didn't even know you were invited." George asked.

"O'Malley," Mark said acknowledging his presence. "Izzie invited me. And yes surprisingly I am having fun."

"Don't have too much fun," George said in a menacing voice.

"Excuse me, O'Malley?" Mark asked clearly shocked by George's tone.

"You heard me, you better be careful."

"O'Malley, what the hell are you trying to threaten me about?"

"Stay away from Izzie," George warned getting up in Mark's face. "She's an amazing person and my best friend and you don't need to screw with her like you do with other women."

"No, apparently, you've been doing that enough for both of us. And what I do or do not do to Izzie Stevens is none of your business. It's between me and her, its our secret." Mark coldly stated before getting even closer to George. "Though I have to say, she says that she likes me a hell of a lot better than you, in so many different ways."

George punches Mark in the face knocking him down. Izzie and Callie seeing this rush over to them as the crowd begins to form around them. Izzie rushes over to Mark and crouches down beside him helping him to a sitting position while Callie is standing next to George trying to calm him down.

"George, what the hell is going on?" Callie asked clearly confused.

"Are you okay?" Izzie asked Mark touching the bruise forming on his jaw.

"I'm fine," Mark clearly annoyed that George knocked him down.

"George, what the freaking hell was that?" Izzie asked as she looked up at George clearly beyond pissed off.

"Izzie, you can't be with Sloan. He doesn't care about you, he's just using you so he could feel better about himself and then he'll betray you."

"That's funny coming form you," Mark retorted. "Why don't you talk to your wife about betrayal? I'm sure she'd be more than interested to know what you've been up to."

Izzie sat there next to Mark too shocked to say anything.

"What the hell are you talking about Mark?" Callie asked even more confused.

"Ask your husband if he remembered and honored all of his vows," Mark responded.

Callie looked at George and then Izzie and her confusion turned to anger and rage. "George you bastard, how could you?" Callie then turned to Izzie. "And you, you bitch. I knew you'd screw things up between us but I didn't think you would sink this low." With that the crowd that formed around them parted as she stormed out of the reception.

George turned to Izzie, shocked and said, "You told him?" And then he ran after Callie.

Mark suddenly realizing what just transpired turned to Izzie and said softly, "Izzie, I'm…."

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because Izzie slapped him hard across the face and stood up tears in her eyes.

"You son of a bitch, how could you? Friendship is over, it's so freaking over." With that Izzie ran out of the reception crying.

"Friendship?" Alex asked standing in front of Mark and looking down at him. "That's all it was? She trusted you and you couldn't even freaking manage to make that work, you don't deserve to know her in anyway, shape, or form," He grabbed Addison's hand who was staring at Mark in mixture of disgust and pity. "Come on Addison, lets go see if Izzie's okay." Addison was a little surprised when he grabbed her but followed him anyway.

Cristina turned to Burke and took a swig of her Champagne before saying, "Only at a Seattle Grace wedding could this much drama occur."

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A/N: as I avoid the tar and feather for this chapter, I'm sorry but I had to. You can't be in a friendship with McSteamy and not have him screw up somehow. And you can't be friends with a hot guy and not have him screw up. Okay, so as I avoid even more anger from you guys, I'm back on my 14-hour shifts till Friday and then I'm not going to be online till I finish the 7th Harry Potter book cause I don't want to have a repeat of the 5th book, where when I went online to check my email there was a huge popup that told me who died in the book. So I'm sorry again, and please review. I'll update as soon as I finish the book.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, and I'm so sorry that I suck. I actually finished Harry Potter at 2am on Monday morning, but then I was trying to catch up on sleep, so I've been half dead at work and got yelled at a lot so, anyway, I didn't update cause of that, so I'm sorry again. Anyway, here's a recap of what happened: Izzie and Mark made it to Cristina and Burke's wedding all was going well till George started getting up in Mark's face basically saying that Mark wasn't good enough for Izzie. In a mix of his own pride and trying to protect Izzie, he basically let it slip out about George and Izzie. Izzie slapped him and friendship was so freaking over. Without anymore delay….

Chapter 12

That night when Alex and Addison found Izzie, she was throwing up and crying in the bathroom at Meredith's house. After finally calming her down, Addison helped Izzie change out of her clothes and helped her into bed and then Alex came in.

"Hey Iz, I thought that you might want some ice cream, comfort food and all," Alex offered holding out a large tub of chocolate ice cream to her. She looked all red and blotchy from the crying and throwing up. Her blond hair was tied up in a ponytail and was sitting on the bed in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

Izzie took the entire container from him and started eating not looking up at the two of them. Very softly and her voice still heavy with emotion she said without looking up, "Thanks, Alex. You too Dr. Montgomery."

"Of course Stevens, do you need anything else?"

"No thanks. If you don't mind, I just want to sit here alone and wallow."

"Of course, we're here if you need us," Alex said gently.

"Thanks and thank you both for not judging me about all of this," Izzie said finally looking up at them, her eyes brimming with tears.

Alex and Addison smiled at her and then closed the door and made their way downstairs to the kitchen where Alex made the two of them coffee.

"Wow, that was some wedding. Nothing around here can ever be just simple and straight forward, can it?" Addison asked taking a long deep sip of her coffee.

"I wish," Alex said sitting next to her. "How's Callie doing?"

Addison shrugged and replied, "I have no idea, she's not picking up the phone but I imagine pretty shitty."

"Yeah, I guess that was a stupid question," Alex said. He looked at Addison closely before saying softly, "You knew didn't you? About George and Izzie?"

Addison clearly surprise asked, "Why would you say that?"

"Cause you didn't look surprised about any of this," Alex stated.

"She told me she slept with someone inappropriate," Addison said finally conceding. I just never thought it would be O'Malley. I'm guessing she told you."

"I kind of figured it out."

"By the way, what the hell was that about Mark and her?"

"That I have no idea, I thought that they were hooking up, I never thought that they'd actually be friends."

"They seem like the two least likely people to get along like that," Addison said.

"Hey Addison," Alex said in a voice that made Addison look at him. "this is completely off topic, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry about being such an ass after we slept together."

"Don't worry about it," Addison said trying to act cool.

"No, I'm sorry, I really, really like you but I'm not ready for serious yet. And after I found out about you thinking about us in the future, I kind of freaked," Alex stated.

"I like you too but I'm not ready for serious yet either. And if you want it doesn't need to get serious." Addison offered.

"So how about we take it slow and see what happens?" Alex asked.

I'd like that, I mean, we have time," Addison said closing the distance between the two of them. She kissed him deeply and made their way upstairs to his room, they reached his room where he slammed the door shut and she started removing his jacket and shirt.

"What happened to taking it slow?" Alex asked between kisses not really wanting it to stop.

"Just cause we're taking the relationship thing slow, doesn't mean we can't enjoy each other right now," Addison said before silencing Alex from asking anymore questions.

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The next day at the hospital, the gossip mill was working overtime about the confrontation between Mark and George. Callie called in sick and Burke and Cristina already left for their honeymoon. Mark came up to Bailey as she was on her way to the intern locker room, his jaw still purple from the night before.

"Good morning Dr. Bailey. I was wondering if I could please have Dr. Stevens today," Mark requested as politely as he could.

"I bet you were," Bailey muttered to herself looking down at the chart in her hand. She looked up and said more clearly, "Dr. Shepherd has already requested Stevens today and for the rest of the week. You have Dr. Grey today."

Bailey left Mark and ran into Izzie right outside the locker room.

"Dr. Bailey, I was wondering if I could be exempt from Dr. Sloan's services today," Izzie requested politely.

"Okay, Stevens, what happened?" Bailey demanded looking at Izzie with her Bailey glare.

"What do you mean Dr. Bailey?" Izzie asked innocently but her red eyes and withdrawn expression gave it away.

"I mean what happened at the wedding? Dr. Torres has taken off sick. Dr. Sloan has a huge welt on his jaw. And Dr. Sloan requested you specifically this morning..." 

"I bet he did," Izzie muttered to herself.

Bailey thought about questioning her but thought against it and continued, "But Dr. Shepherd wants you on his service this week. And O'Malley has also requested not to be on Dr. Sloan's service."

"It's a long story and you'll probably hear most of it through the grape vine at the nurses station but I just want to apologize in advance for everything," Izzie said her voice full of sorrow.

Before Bailey could respond, the rest of the interns came out.

"Okay, since Yang and Burke are off for the week, we're one attending and one intern short. Which means the rest of you will have to pick up the slack," Bailey stated changing the topic. "Stevens-Shepherd; Grey-Sloan; O'Malley-Clinic; Karev-Montgomery. And you fools have this one day grace period where you can fix whatever stupid thing you did. Starting tomorrow, you're back on your regular rotations so whatever attending you end up with that's the one you're stuck with. And remember, you only have a month left of your internship, make sure that you familiarize yourself with as many techniques as possible."

As the rest of the interns scattered to find their attendings, Alex came up to Izzie as they walked to find their own attendings.

"Hey Iz, how are you?" Alex asked looking at Izzie's pallid face.

"Just awesome," Izzie said sarcastically tears starting to move down her face. "I lost two of my best friends in one night and I've been betrayed by them in a matter of one month. You better stay away from me too. Everyone who gets too close, gets hurt in one way or another."

Alex put his arm around her and hugged her quickly. "don't worry, you still got me. I don't get hurt easily."

Izzie let out a dry laugh and wiped the tears from her eyes, "So changing the subject, did I see Addison coming out of your room this morning or was I dreaming?"

Alex continued walking, didn't say anything, and just smiled to himself.

"Good boy, see you learned." Izzie said smiling lightly at him.

They finally found Addison and Derek waiting by the nurses station. When they reached there, one of the nurses called Izzie over.

"Hey Izzie, Dr. Sloan asked me to give this to you," Tyler said handing Izzie a cup of coffee and a vanilla frosted cupcake with the words 'I'm so sorry' written on it in pink icing.

"Thanks Tyler," Izzie said sweetly. She took the coffee and cupcake and threw it in the nearby trash can before coming up to Derek. "So what's our first case today Dr. Shepherd?"

A/N: sorry about the whole Addison and Alex thing seeming forced but it kinda was cause I didn't want Addison to leave so I had to give her a reason to stay.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews they make me try to stop being lazy. Also I've discovered that I should probably post new chapters before reading other fanfiction, cause I read them and by the time I'm done I get so tired I don't feel like typing. Anyways, here's chapter 13. please review and as always, I don't own Grey's.

Chapter 13

Izzie and Derek had just finished their cerebral tumor resection and were scrubbing out in silence.

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd," Izzie said finally breaking the silence.

"For what?" Derek asked looking at her with his piercing blue eyes.

"For requesting me today and for asking Dr. Bailey if I could work with you for the week before Dr. Sloan had a chance to ask for me."

"If Dr. Bailey asks I only requested you to improve your neuron surgical techniques," Derek replied smiling at her. "So Izzie…Can I ask you a person question?"

Izzie, already anticipating when this question would come, blurted out her reply quickly, "I wasn't sleeping with Sloan, we were just friends. I needed someone and he needed someone, so we became friends, that's it, nothing happened."

"Actually what I was going to ask was why did you become friends with him? Why'd you confide in him? I mean with the whole George thing, you could have come to anyone of the rest of us, why him?"

Izzie looked down at her soap covered hands, took a breath before replying softly, "Cause he didn't know me, he couldn't have judged me. He wouldn't have given me that disappointed look that the rest of you would have. And for the record, me and George were ridiculously drunk on Bourbon and didn't mean for it to happen. I thought for a while that even though it was a mistake, it meant something more but now I realize that it meant nothing. If anything, it was a transition step for me to consider ever moving on from Denny. To have a real relationship again."

Izzie finished washing her hands and turned to face Derek leaning her back against the sink and said sadly, "I realize though now how you were ever friends with Mark. He has his good moments when he's this amazing guy."

"Yeah, but then he has his jackass moments when he betrays you," Derek replied drying his hands.

"Yeah, I guess that's something we have in common now; we've both been betrayed by Mark Sloan. It sucks though, I really trusted him, he was a true friend to me these past few weeks and now I feel alone again. I mean I know that you guys are there for me and everything, but you have Meredith, Alex has Addison, Cristina has Burke, Meredith has Cristina, and George has Callie. At least with Mark I didn't feel alone. I had someone just for me."

Derek, unable to think of something to contradict her but couldn't come up with anything because he knew that she was right, merely said, "I'm sorry Izzie."

"I'm sorry too Derek," Izzie replied.

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Izzie walked through the halls for the rest of the day the victim of stares, pointing and gossip. The gossip got extremely bad during lunch so instead of even considering to see if her friends wanted to have lunch with her, she went down to the basement to eat lunch in the tunnels on the empty gurneys. She was halfway through her lunch when she saw George approaching the gurneys clearly not seeing her. When George finally looked up he saw Izzie sitting there and turned around. Izzie was finally tired of this crap and wanted it settled.

"George!" Izzie yelled out but he kept walked so she pressed on louder. "George Harold O'Malley get your ass back here right now, we need to talk." Her tone made him freeze where he was and turned around but he made no movement to come closer.

"What? Don't you think you've done enough damage?" George demanded coldly.

"No, no, you don't get to do that," Izzie said sternly. "Let's settle this George. I say my apologizes for what I did bad and you fess up and apologize for yours. First I am truly sorry about the incident at the wedding. I never should have trusted Mark Sloan with that knowledge. Secondly I am sorry that I didn't approve of your marriage and that I wasn't supportive of it. I am your best friend and you got married and I wasn't there to help and support you to help you to make your marriage work. I am also very sorry about the drunk sex, that was as much my fault as it was yours. And I am also whole heartedly sorry about making you think that I had feelings for you as anything more than friends. I was using you as an emotional crutch to get over losing Denny. Our drunken night made me realize that I need to deal with his death, stop blaming myself and move on. And I am so sorry that I used you to do that but I needed to feel like I wasn't alone. Okay, now your turn."

George who was a little surprised about all of this took a deep breath before starting. "I am truly sorry about a lot of stuff Izzie. I am so sorry about not being there for you after you lost Denny, about insulting his memory when my dad got sick and of not helping you to find someone and move forward. I am very sorry about the drunk sex and I am also sorry about not listening to you. You were right, we should have told Callie right away. Maybe then we would have had a chance. And I thought that I had feelings for you but the truth is that I'm so in love with Callie. She's it for me like Denny was for you. So I'm sorry."

"This is it George. This is the end of our story. I'm letting you go, go be with Callie. We're not best friends anymore and until this blows over, we're not friends," Izzie said sadly but firmly because it needed to be said. "I love you, you are my best friend, so I'm letting you go, go fix your marriage."

"So, we're cool?" George asked uncertainly.

"We're cool," Izzie confirmed.

George turned to leave but hesitated for a minute, "I love you too Izzie, and you'll find your person again, even if it is Sloan."

"There was nothing going on between me and Sloan. He was just my best friend substitute," Izzie replied.

George merely smiled at her before responding, "You'll find that person Izzie and you'll be happy like you were before." With that he turned and left.

"Thanks George," Izzie whispered.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: thanks for the reviews, and I did it again, I read all of the other stories before I decided to finally start updating mine-I know Amanda, I'm going to try to be better . Okay here's the next chapter, please review. Italics are the character's thoughts, by the way.

Chapter 14

It was late evening and Izzie had just taken a nap in the on-call room and was just getting out of the interns locker room to check in for her on-call shift.

"_Okay, only 12 more hours to get through and then home for an entire day_," Izzie thought to herself as she made her way past the elevators towards the nurse's station. Just as she had finished checking in for her shift, she heard someone calling her name. She recognized the voice and continued to walk. "_Damn it, I got through the first 20 hours of my shift without running into him. Was it too much to ask for the next 12 hours to be Sloan free?"_

Finally Mark jogged up to Izzie and grabbed her arm and turned her around. She shrugged her arm out of his grip and folding her arms across her chest looking annoyed at him.

"Hey, I was calling you," Mark stated.

"I heard but I chose to ignore it," Izzie replied coldly.

"You threw away the coffee and cupcake I got you this morning," Mark said trying to wear her down.

"How observant of you," Izzie retorted.

"I paged you 10 times today," Mark continued.

"And like I said before, I heard them and chose to ignore you," Izzie replied.

"How do you know I wasn't calling you about a patient?" Mark countered.

"Well, seeing as I'm not on your service this week…So how about you don't talk to me until I'm actually responsible for one of your patients," Izzie responded her voice ice cold. She glared at him for a minute and then turned and walked away.

Mark was left dumbfounded for a second by Izzie's harsh attitude and when he finally came to his senses started to walk towards her again but Bailey got in his way.

"Excuse me, Dr. Bailey," Mark requested politely.

"Stop. Stop it. Leave my intern alone, Dr. Sloan. I heard about what happened at the wedding and I want you to stay the hell away from my interns unless they are assigned to you," Bailey demanded.

"I just need to talk to Stevens," Mark said feebly.

"You've got to be kidding," Bailey exclaimed. "That girl has lost a lot this past year and she's barely been holding on and then you go and betray her? No, not a chance in hell. Stay away from her, I mean it."

Mark, realizing that Bailey wasn't going to let him within two feet of Izzie resigned himself and went home.

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Izzie had thankfully finished the rest of her shift without running into Mark. Also thankfully the rumors about her died down a little when someone found the Chief of Staff in his office with a med student. "_It's only a temporary silence but I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts."_ Izzie was the last intern left in the locker room and thankfully she was not on-call again tonight, Alex was. She had just finished putting on her shoes and was braiding her wet hair thinking to herself "_I can't wait to go home and veg out. It's been an insane three days. Maybe I'll watch some Matt Damon movie where I don't have to pay attention and eat junkfood and sit in my pajamas."_ Izzie's thoughts were interrupted by a low deep voice next to her ear.

"You know, I've heard that you're not supposed to confine wet hair like that. Something about causing your hair to break."

Izzie moved away from him quickly and turned to her locker to finish getting her stuff.

"Do you need something Dr. Sloan? Or is today's harassment part of your brilliant plan to pulverize my spirit?" Izzie asked harshly.

"Izzie, come on…" Mark pleaded.

"It's Dr. Stevens!" Izzie exclaimed slamming the locker door before moving towards the exit. "And if you don't need anything, then good night Dr. Sloan." She was just about to leave and had her hand on the door knob but Mark had already reached her and shut the door with his hand. Izzie turned around to face him but he closed the distance between them and was basically pinning her against the door. He was staring down at her intently, Izzie raised her face to his and was participating in a staring contest with him, refusing to back down.

"What the hell are you doing?" Izzie demanded to know, not breaking eye contact.

"Well Dr. Stevens, I just thought of what I need. I need you to forgive me. I've been apologizing since yesterday and I'm going to say it again. I'm so sorry for being an ass to you," Mark stated firmly as he continued to look at her but his eyes now showed vulnerability.

Izzie felt herself soften at his obvious sincerity and vulnerability of what he was saying but she snapped back into reality when she remembered what happened and continued in an even harsher and colder voice.

"No, you don't NEED me to forgive you, you WANT me to forgive you and that's never going to happen. You had your chance and you blew it, you screwed up."

"Izzie, I'm sorry, I just slipped, I didn't think it would escalate that far," Mark continued the urgency in his voice more apparent.

"No, you didn't think. That's your problem, you don't think; you just do. Did you ever consider that your actions have consequences or did that fact just escape your mind? Don't you realize what you've done, what you've ruined and destroyed? You destroyed George and Callie's marriage, you've destroyed any hope of me and George going back to what we were, and you've ruined my reputation. And worst of all, you betrayed me. I told you things, intimate details about my life that no one else knows and you betrayed that trust I put in you. Did you every consider that? I mean I trusted you; I trusted you completely. I also respected you, not the you as a surgeon, but the you as a person. How many people do you know that would put that much faith in you?" Mark kept quiet and broke eye contact and looked down. "Exactly. Now if you don't mind, I've been on for two days and I would like to go home now. So good night Dr. Sloan."

Mark moved his hand off the door and backed away allowing Izzie to leave. "Good night Dr. Stevens."

With that Izzie left and Mark sat down on the bench and put his head in his hands and was trying to process everything that just happened between them.

"_Wow, I really blew it. She actually cared about me, she actually liked and respected me and I got and divulge one of her most intimate secrets in a room full of people. I really am a bastard and a jackass. I can't believe that I did that. Even weirder, I actually care that I hurt her. Shit, I actually care about her. I want her back in my life but more importantly I think I actually NEED her in my life. She makes me want to be a better person. Okay, I have to figure out how to get her to forgive me and I'm pretty sure this isn't fixable with candy and flowers."_

Mark sat on the bench for over half an hour thinking of different scenarios but each seemed as futile as the previous, until he finally got it. He ran out of the locker room and went to his office, he had a lot of work to do.

A/N: sorry about any typos or grammatical errors but it's like 1 in the morning. Hope you enjoyed and please review they help me stay up longer to type up the chapter.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

It was about 6pm and Izzie had a couple hours of sleep but unfortunately couldn't sleep straight through till her next shift. She was alone in the house cause Alex and Meredith were still in the hospital. She cleaned the house from top to bottom, organized Meredith's mom's surgical tapes from the most complex surgery to the least and she baked muffins, cookies, three pies, and cobbler to get her mind off of the fact that she was completely alone and the fact that she was stupid enough to let Mark Sloan get close enough to her to hurt her.

"_That's never going to happen again. I'm never going to be that naïve again." _Izzie thought to herself. It was about 9pm when Izzie finally finished her cleaning and baking. Right after she finished folding her laundry, Alex and Meredith came home.

"Hey Iz," Alex said before running upstairs to his room.

"Hey Izzie, we'll be back down in a few," Meredith said following Alex upstairs. Ten minutes later they emerged clean and their bags full.

"Hey Iz, I'm going to spend the night at Addison's. You going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Here take these," Izzie replied handing him a basket full of muffins and cookies. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thanks," Alex said before looking at her closely and then he kissed her on the cheek and said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Call me if you need anything."

Alex left leaving Izzie and Meredith alone. This was the first time they had been alone since the wedding.

"You leaving too?" Izzie asked, not really looking at Meredith.

"Yeah, I'm spending the night at the trailer with Derek."

"Oh," Izzie said the disappointment of having to spend the night alone in the house apparent.

"Izzie, we really haven't spoken since the wedding. How have you been? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Izzie said nonchantlantly.

"You know as well as I do that 'I'm fine' doesn't ever mean that we're fine," Meredith said smiling at her.

"No, it really doesn't," Izzie responded finally looking up at Meredith.

"So, you and George?"

"Yeah, me and George."

"Oh." Meredith said softly.

" 'Oh' that's it? No judgment? No picking sides? Nothing? No making me feel bad cause I did something terrible?" Izzie questioned.

"We all do terrible things," Meredith simply replied.

"I was drunk, we were really drunk."

"Yeah…Are you in love with him?"

"I thought I was," Izzie said softly.

"And now?"

"I'll always love him as a friend but nothing more. I miss him though."

"Give it time, it'll blow over."

"I can't believe we did that to Callie. I know I didn't really like her that much but no one deserves that to happen to them."

"No, they don't."

"What do I do?"

"Apologize, keep apologizing and when and if she decides to forgive you, she will."

"When did I get to the point where I became a dirty mistress?" Izzie asked sadly.

"Like I said, we all do terrible things," Meredith said before smiling. "Dirty mistress? You got that from Mark."

"Well, he would know," Izzie said bitterly.

"So you and McSteamy?"

"Just friends, nothing more…or we used to be."

"Why him?" Meredith asking the same question that everyone else asked.

"Cause I needed someone to be my friend but you were all too busy with your own lives," After seeing the guilt on Meredith's face. "Which is okay, you should be happy, all of you. But Mark was there and he became my confidant, my friend. And you know what's even more sad? He actually became my best friend." Izzie wiped away the tear that escaped out of the corner of her eye.

"I'm sorry Iz. We should have been there for you. You've always been there fore us."

"It's really okay Meredith. I'm really okay. I understand now why Derek was friends with him. He has some redeeming qualities," Izzie said smiling to herself.

"You miss him don't you?" Meredith asked knowingly.

"You know, I think I actually do," Izzie admitted.

"You could forgive him?" Meredith suggested.

"I can't. He broke rule #20. He hurt me too much to forgive him."

"Rule # 20?" Meredith asked confused.

"What? Oh crap! I shouldn't have said that," Izzie said before thinking about it for a minute. "Oh forget it. It doesn't matter anymore. Mark and I made rules when we first started this friendship thing so that it would just remain a friendship." She pulled out the list from her wallet and handed it to Meredith.

"Wow, you actually made a list," Meredith exclaimed looking at the list.

"Yeah, well, its Mark Sloan. If you don't document it, he thinks it didn't happen."

"Izzie, there's A LOT of rules on here."

"Yeah well, with Mark Sloan, you have to include everything, so he doesn't find any loopholes."

" 'Hoes over bros? No sex? No inappropriate touching? NO FLIRTING?'" Meredith said laughing hysterically. "And how was that going?"

"Easier than you think. I think he was actually afraid of me." Izzie responded.

Meredith folded the list and handed it back to Izzie. "Actually, I think he was more afraid of losing you."

"Apparently not enough," Izzie said bitterly.

"Give him another chance, Iz. He's Mark, he screws up worse than most people but he's had it rough, you of all people should know that."

"Why should I?" Izzie asked stubbornly before looking at Meredith suspiciously. "Why are you acting like his cheerleader?"

"I'm not, I'm acting like yours." Meredith stated firmly. "It's so obvious you miss him and I miss seeing how happy he makes you, like you were before Denny died. I almost died Izzie. I know how important it is to keep the people who matter the most close to you and forgive them for their stupidity cause at the end of the day, they're what matters the most. Just think about it."

Meredith gathered her stuff and then looked at Izzie, "Do you want me to stay with you tonight?"

"No, I just need to be alone for a while to think things through," Izzie replied.

"Okay."

"Here take this," Izzie said handing Meredith a pie and the cobbler. "Thank Derek for me too."

"Okay," Meredith said walking with Izzie to the door. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be okay."

"Think about what I said. Goodnight." Meredith said walking out the door.

"Night Mer," Izzie closed the door and settled on the couch with a pie in her lap watching Ocean's 11 when the doorbell rang. She got up and walked to the door. "Mer, what'd you forget?" She opened the door and stared in shock at the man at her door. "What the hell are you doing here?"

A/N: Sorry I don't mean to end it here, but I have a flight in an hour to my boyfriend's sister's engagement party. And if you think Nancy is McBitchy, she doesn't hold a candle to Jacqueline. Yeah, she pretty much hates me and I'm pretty sure that her parent's and my boyfriend force her into making me a bridesmaid. And as far as wedding's go, she gives Star Jones a run for her money for Bridezilla. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and hopefully I'll find a computer this weekend to update further. This chapter was supposed to be really long, but I got too busy working and packing. Please review, it might make me enjoy this weekend from hell.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Thanks for all the Reviews and the support. Thankfully I was kept 10 feet away from Bridezilla the entire time and my boyfriend is amazing. He's a mix of McDreamy, McSteamy, and Denny, to make up for making me go, he took me to a concert as a surprise, it was awesome. And he's totally okay with me dumping him for Gerard Way. I'm starting out at the end of chapter 15. Anyway here it goes…

Chapter 16

"Night Mer," Izzie closed the door and settled on the couch with a pie in her lap watching Ocean's 11 when the doorbell rang. She got up and walked to the door. "Mer, what'd you forget?" She opened the door and stared in shock at the man at her door. "What the hell are you doing here? You know what, forget it, I don't care." Izzie angrily moved to close the door but he held it open with his hand.

"I'm not leaving, I need to talk to you," Mark stated firmly.

"I don't see about what. It couldn't possibly be about a patient since I am neither on your service nor on call tonight. And seeing as discussing a patient is the only conversation I want to have with you," Izzie said turning to shut the door again.

Mark kept the door open with his hand refusing to budge. "I want to talk to you."

Izzie noticing the attention this argument was attracting from the neighbors, she let him into the doorway but didn't let him move further away from the door. "Seriously, stop! Stop stalking me. I mean, get the hint already. You know, in case it wasn't obvious from the 30 unanswered pages, the 50 unanswered calls, and the 20 unanswered voicemails, the throwing of the coffee and cupcake and the fact that I keep telling you to stop talking to me, you apparently are too thick to get the point. So here it is: STOP BOTHERING ME! We're not friends, not anymore, so leave me the hell alone."

"Shut up," Mark quietly said.

"Excuse me," Izzie responded in shock.

Mark sidestepped Izzie and walked into the living room and sat on the couch. "I said shut up."

Izzie walked into the living room angrily and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips, "Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you waltz into my house like some sort of guest? Get off my couch and go home."

"I'm not leaving till you hear me out," Mark calmly replied.

"Get out now!" Izzie exclaimed so angry that she thought she might kill him.

Mark frustrated now, grabbed her hand and pulled her down to the couch so that she was sitting next to him. "Oh my God, you stubborn pain in the ass, just sit down and listen to me for 5 minutes. And then after that I will leave you alone completely. I'll even demand that you are kept off my service if you want."

Izzie moved away from him and sat at the other end of the couch and crossed her arms and looked at him. "Fine. Go, clock's ticking."

Mark pulled his media player out and said, "I knew that if I tried calling you with this, you either wouldn't have picked up or you would have deleted the message, so I recorded it on here."

"What is it? You only got 4 minutes and 45 seconds left," Izzie unyieldingly replied.

Mark moved closer to Izzie but she got up. "Fine." Mark hit play and put the media player into her hands.

Izzie stared at it for a minute and then started to hear the recording.

_Hi Isobel, _

_You don't know me and I don't know you but I'm Hannah and you are my biological mother. To tell you the truth I thought that I never cared to know you but then your annoying, semi-decently cute friend wouldn't leave me alone until I at least gave this a try. So here it goes…_

_Wow, this is so weird, trying to figure out what to say to my mother. I mean I always knew I was adopted and I had millions of questions I wanted to ask you but I can't think of one right now. So let's start with me thanking you. Thank you for the bone marrow, I know you didn't have to do it but you did it anyway, so thank you. Secondly thank you for giving me up for adoption. I…(_Hannah's voice cracked which caused Izzie to tear up so she sat down next to Mark clutching the media player tightly) _I used to be angry at you, wondering why you gave me up for adoption, I used to think I wasn't good enough but I realized, after a lot of talking from your friend Mark, that you gave me the best gift of all by giving me up. You gave me two amazing parents who love me unconditionally and have taken care of me through the good times and the hard times. They gave me a great life, I am very happy. I have a wonderful life, great friends and I do very well in school. And apparently I have a great metabolism considering all the food I eat, so thanks for that Isobel. _(Izzie started laughing among the tears that kept falling) _I just wanted to let you know that I'm not angry with you for giving me up. But I'm happy that you were mature enough and loved me enough to let me go. So, Isobel, thanks for that. _(Izzie grabbed Mark's hand and squeezed it tightly as she continued to cry and listen to the recording.)

_So Mark's been telling me all theses things about your life and I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Here I was thinking that you lived this magical life when you gave me up but apparently it wasn't so charmed. First of all, I am very sorry about your fiancée but you will see him again in heaven. Mark said that you struggled to pay for college and medical school but that you are a very talented surgeon so that's great. One of the things that my psychologist tells her patients with cancer is that in life we struggle but in the end its worth it. I was actually thinking about becoming a doctor. I want to be an oncologist so that I can help kids like me._

_I want to know you Isobel, but I need you to give me time. I have your number, so I will call you when I'm ready but I promise I will call you. Oh and Isobel, no matter what happens in your life, and no matter how alone you think you are, you're not cause you have this amazing friend Mark who spend half the day harassing me and my family with phone calls and the other half driving from Seattle to Portland just to talk to me. He obviously cares about you as much as my parents care about me. _

_Okay, be happy Isobel and enjoy life because its too short. Take care and I will talk to you soon._

With that the recording ended and Izzie just sat there next to Mark frozen, her hand still gripping his tightly. Tears were silently making their way down her face. She put the media player down on the coffee table, disengaged her hand from Mark's and held her hands together staring at the floor. Mark was breathing slowly, afraid that maybe he shouldn't have done something that rash. His thoughts of worry were interrupted by Izzie's small voice.

"You play dirty," Izzie whispered.

Mark looked at her confused for a moment then caught on, "Yeah, I know."

"Thank you," Izzie said before she started to cry again and Mark instinctively wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. When she finally stopped, she disengaged from him and looked at him intently. "This is it you know? This is your last chance, no more after this. So don't screw it up."

"I promise I won't ever," Mark solemnly promised.

"Good," Izzie faced forward away from Mark but put her hand over his and squeezed. "Cause I don't' want to lose you again, I missed you."

"I don't to lose you either, I need you in my life. And I missed you so much," Mark said a tear escaping out of his eye.

Izzie wiped the tear away from his face, "Dude, suck it up. You're Mark Sloan, you're not supposed to be crying. There's no crying in baseball." Izzie said smiling at him.

Mark playfully shoved her and then started laughing, "Cute, so Fight Club back on?"

"Yeah, I told Meredith about Fight Club, but otherwise Fight Club back on with one exception to the rules."

"What?"

"We can hug and hold hands for comfort as long as the hands stay where they're supposed to."

Mark opened his mouth to make a smart ass comment but decided against it since he was already on thin ice. "Agreed."

"Okay," Izzie wiped the tears from her face and got up and went into the kitchen and came back with a variety of food and sat down on the couch next to Mark and picked up the remote. "We're watching Ocean's 11 okay, and not arguments."

Mark smiled and took off his jacket and shoes and put his feet on the coffee table and grabbed Izzie's pie from her hands and took a bite. "No arguments."

"Hey, that's my pie," Izzie exclaimed but happy to have him back.

"Now, now Isobel, you need to learn to share," Mark said smirking at her.

Izzie rolled her eyes and grabbed a brownie off the table and looked at him for a minute smiling at how comfortable this was. When he sensed her looking at him, he smiled back, not with a McSteamy smile but a genuine one, and the two of them continued to watch the movie.


End file.
